Washington Jail Inmate Unexpectedly Gives Birth
The emergency delivery, the first birth ever at the lockup, was handled by staff nurses about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, and the mother and her healthy baby were taken immediately to Providence Everett Medical Center by ambulance, jail spokesman Jim Harms said.
``The medical staff said that all looked well,'' said David Oster, the jail's counseling supervisor.
The mother, Elaina Rae Hood, 43, of Marysville, about halfway through a one-year sentence for drunken driving, had not told guards or officials at the jail she was pregnant, nor was she required to do so, officials said.
Hood was transferred to the jail in Everett from the minimum-security Indian Ridge Corrections Center near Arlington after she complained of cramps Wednesday morning Oster said. She gave birth in a fourth-floor cell shortly after nurses discovered she was in labor.
Hood must return to jail once she is medically fit, Harms said. He said he did not know what would happen to the baby when that happens.
She could complete her sentence in three months with time off for good behavior, he added.
